Chris Packham on HS2

FROM:-   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqsYX5zdSU0

We are in a climate emergency.

It's more of a plane than a train.

We are in an ecological emergency.

Endangered species.

Water

Tearing open the countryside.

Vast sums of taxpayers' money being used to destroy nature.

HS2 is already obsolete

It is taking us in the wrong direction.

HS2 is severing our connections with the land.

Destroying democracy

Please ask for tram alignment tweeked to save grass embankment and trees

Dear Tim - and copied to those you need to ask - please. Tim Sunter is a former leader of Dudley Council and Brierley Hill community leader.

I have just read this tweet from Chris Packham:

"Look who is killing the world . . . it’s us thanks to ⁦

@DefraGovUK

⁩ & ⁦

@NFUtweets

⁩ who once again ensure we will remain one of the most nature depleted countries on earth thanks to big agriculture & it’s greedy dependence on a cocktail of chemicals."

The Metro alignment only has to be moved 2 or 3 metres to the west and put on stilts directly above the water of the canal to save the grass embankment and these trees (plus, possibly, part of my landscape enhancement scheme!):-

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

The track would then leave the canal, itself at the 'Bailey' bridge for the terminus stop and so avoids taking any of the High Plateau land that is urgently needed for energy efficient and energy generating eco-homes.

We Brits beat the German engineers (but not the French) with our 1896 Volks Electric Railway at Brighton: http://volkselectricrailway.co.uk/history/the-daddy-long-legs/

The German engineers put a railway line above a river and roads.  Extract:

" ... the first track opened in 1901. The railway line is credited with growth of the original cities and their eventual merger into Wuppertal.^[2] The Schwebebahn is still in use as a normal means of local public transport, moving 25 million passengers annually, per the 2008 annual report.^[3] New rail cars were ordered in 2015, called Generation 15, and the first new car went into service in December 2016.

"The Schwebebahn runs along a route of 13.3 kilometres (8.3 mi), at a height of about 12 metres (39 ft) above the River Wupper between Oberbarmen and Sonnborner Straße (10 kilometres or 6.2 miles) and about 8 metres (26 ft) above the valley road between Sonnborner Straße and Vohwinkel (3.3 kilometres or 2.1 miles).^[4][5] At one point the railway crosses the A46 motorway. The entire trip takes about 30 minutes.^[5] ... The modernization was completed and the line fully reopened on 19 August 2013. "

Prevent nature getting yet another hammering - please.  And leave more land for housing.

Best wishes and many thanks

to George Riches

Thanks so much, George.  Yes it does, indeed.  But HS2 is way over £100 BILLION in cost and similar in weight of deadly greenhouse gases.  When opened, it is unlikely that we will see an appreciable reduction in plane travel as flyers shift to HS2.  Some reduction, certainly, I hope.  HS2 simply encourages more long-distance travel when we all have to cut back, massively.  I've cut my car mileage by 50% on my 2019 mileage, keep to 60 to 65 mph on 70 mph roads and get well over 70 mpg.  And I still feel guilty - rightly so.  Linda and I are cycling to Brum city centre tomorrow on 6 miles of blessed, traffic-free, cycle-walkway out of 8 miles.

Why concrete, brick and tarmac yet more of nature to give a very small minority the choice of either plane or train?  They should not be flying at all and should not be using HS2.  Don't we all have to minimise ALL travel, ALL spending, ALL energy use and even renewables to leave more resources for future generations?  I feel I am stealing from my 2 children and 2 grandchildren every time I even turn on the cold tap, let alone the hot!  I am truly sorry for the mess I have made for them.  But, I'm not yet going to live, just yet, like a complete hermit - just a complete idiot!    Tim

ON THE PETITION DEBATE, last night:

Wonderful Chris Packham could not have spoken a truer word. It makes all our problems worse, intensifies the climate emergency and shouts the lie that it will reduce overcrowding, increasing capacity when it rockets past every intercity station, duplicating plane travel. That is the lie.

https://www.facebook.com/ChrisGPackham/videos/4075923782529709/

It cannot help in lessening the destruction of nature when it is such a heavy-footed and greenhouse gases intensive way of making all our problems worse and speeding us to THE END. HIGH SPEED TO FOUR TERMINUSES.  Humans are on track to terminate themselves faster!!

Thoughts on W Mids Mayoral candidature to warn and inspire hopeful action

The standing for mayor thing is simply to try and raise the importance of all my/our concerns more often, more easily and to get access to the people in power.  It did give me that advantage at the start of the year when I was given a little more access to the top people.  There was one man appointed who actually did reply to my emails and seemed to take my concerns seriously.  But then Covid and lockdown kicked in and all that stopped.  I don't want votes, I'm only campaigning for the things like those in my last email to you for the 'proper' politicians to do the things that seem blindingly obvious to me - but so few others!

It is probably not worth going beyond 'declaring' my candidature and certainly not worth paying the unreturnable, massive deposit, when there may not be hustings and only Zoom meetings.  The Green Party does not want me to stand as an Independent.  I would not stand if only truly wonderful Chris Packham or Jonathon Porritt would do so for the party in the West Midlands.  That is highly unlikely, however!  Porritt has said 'No', anyway.  I've just read his latest book, 'Hope in Hell' - all about this decade to confront the climate emergency, if it ain't too late already, as I think.

The prognosis for humanity is very poor.  Yet, so far, I have been wrong in thinking that by 2020 things would be very much worse than they are.  I was certainly saying, in the 1990s, in the very occasional PowerPoint presentation on, 'Practical Tips on How to Green Up Your Lifestyle', that "we would certainly be in a very much worse state by the end of the next century than we will see at the end of this."

My fossil fuel consumption has plummeted this year by my doing local footpath clearance work and walks to improve waymarking instead of going to the high hills of England, Scotland and Wales.  If people are going to exercise locally instead of bombing off to the mountains (as I did too much of, I know), then the lowland paths, bridleways and footbridges must be open and available.  One good way of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.  I have discovered the Rea valley of south Shropshire - Cleobury country.

Johnson has had far too many holidays, I think, this year.  Do you ever listen to James O'Brien on LBC from Mon to Fri, inclusive and, from 1000 to 1300 hrs?  He is quite devastatingly magnificent on Johnson, Cummings, Williamson and Brexit, in particular!

Chris Packham is superb and correct in every way

WE STILL HAVEN'T LEARNT HOW TO USE RAILWAY LINES FOR RAILWAY TRAINS!

Chris Packham is superb and correct in every way. He is a hero. As a species, we are committing ecocide. Chris's work has made it less likely that the 87 Kms Western Orbital Motorway will be built down the western side of the Black Country.

The tragedy is that over the last 75 years, we have been closing and permanently losing railway lines. Instead of mothballing them in case they were ever needed again or, even turning them into cycle-walkways, we have sold them off to any old Tom, Dick or Harriet. As a result, thousands of miles have been bulldozed out of existence. The very last, mothballed, mainline railway of 120 Kms (74 miles) is being turned, in the congested and densely populated Black Country, into a piddling little shuttle tramline, a VLR test track, an extended cycle-walkway and a trail of trees. What a waste!

No wonder the deluded, uninformed, wrong-headed authorities want HS2 to allow the rich to have an additional choice of high-speed train or high-speed plane to get between London and Brum super quick, super indulgently and even more greenhouse gas-guzzling.  Live it up today and all hell to pay tomorrow.

However, Jonathon Porritt has 'Hope in Hell: A decade to confront the climate emergency' if we listen to the sound and sane pleadings in his latest book.